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150km of Blinding White: Cycling The Salar de Uyuni

When I visited Bolivia’s largest salt flat (which is also the largest in the world) four years ago by jeep I had no idea that I would someday return to cycle across it. In fact, I didn’t even know that was possible. For the first seventy kilometers we had to share the Salar with tourist jeeps which would speed by, and then flicker out of existence in a weird optical illusion sort of way. It was funny to watch all of the tourists, who looked like tiny cartoon stick figures, taking pictures on the horizon, though we were happy to have our bikes and independence in order to explore at our own speed. We arrived to an island 100km from Uyuni where there were dozens of jeeps, and since this marked the end of the road for them, it was where the fun began for us as we crossed the rest of the Salar completely alone. It took us two full days to cross the Salar, 150km of salt and about 190km of pedaling from one town to the next.

The cycling was easy but it got a bit boring after a while. Our entertainment included zooming towards every not white speck we saw on the ground within eyesight which usually ended up being a piece of trash or a dead bird.

Kevin cycling in the distance.

My four dollar Chilean cowboy hat has been a savior out here! The sun reflected off the salt and burned any exposed skin.

Kevin and I outside of the “salt hotel” which is ten km into the salt flat.

Kevin far off in the distance. The Salar de Uyuni (though not the smaller one I’ll talk about next time) has this hexagon shaped natural marks all over the whole thing.

Kevin on the “road,” marked by worn out patches of salt.

No hands!

We met an awesome Swiss duo (father and son) going the other way. We were surprised they were the only cyclists we met since we know its a popular route.

The hexagons of salt were so defined, we assume it has something to do with how the water evaporates because every rainy season the salt flats turn into a lake.

Just keep pedalin’!

The jeeps didn’t all take the same road – road meaning path where the hexagons of salt are more worn out – so we mostly only saw them zooming by from far away.

The island which charges five dollars (that’s a lot for Bolivia, the equivalent of a room for the night, or three good market meals) just to step on. It’s a tourist trap which works as the jeeps all stop here. Instead, we went another twenty kilometers further to the next, even larger island which is exactly the same except it’s free and without people.

Island number one with a few tourist building (bathrooms, restaurant).

Island number two, which was all ours!

The island was covered with cacti.

We ate lunch on the island on our second day.

Camping was by far the best part about the Salar. It was such a unique and isolated place to camp, where it’s just you, your tent, and a whole lot of stars! And salt. Of course, we can’t forget the salt.

Some of the best camping ever!

Us, our bikes, and our home!

Beautiful sunset in solitude.

Typically when we stop cycling for the day I start cooking as Kevin sets up the tent.

After two days across the first Salar we ended up at a wonderful village which represented everything we love about Bolivia. It was a small clean village which had seen tourists before (other cyclists) and therefore wasn’t shocked by us, yet it wasn’t reliant upon tourism for its economy so the people were still friendly and honest, unlike in the tourist hot spots. We were able to get a local meal – soup, followed by a plate of chicken and noodles plus tea – at a “restaurant” (a lady with a small room with a few tables and chairs) where a toothless grinning man enthusiastically welcomed us to the village and told us about how tons of tourists go to this one island in the Salar (the one I mentioned above which charges) which he thought was so funny and interesting.

We spent the night in the village before heading off across 40km of sandy hell before reaching the next Salar. Check back in a few days for a post about it!

Finally a cycling photo of both of us!

Dance party on the Salar!

Pikes on Bikes technical details for this route: This route took place along the yellow line, through the first of two salars. We used our Garmin trekking GPS along with the Pikes GPS coordinates in order to find our way across.

This made me smile a lot. The photos are beautiful too – occasionally I would be thinking ‘Why won’t it load?! Why is there a big grey section at the bottom?!’ and then I realised it was the salt – just stunning. Good work and keep loving life! x

What a wonderful adventure. Such fabulous pics! I admire you both. I lived in La Paz for many years and am about to return — telling myself that THIS time I’m going to really get to know the complexity and variety of Bolivia. Thanks for great inspiration!!

The pot is bigger than it looks, we can easily make 500g of noodles, plus we have another pot where we make a sauce. It really depends on the country what we eat, but oatmeal, pasta, bananas, and then whatever is in season!

Wow, it looks amazing. I didn’t know you could cycle it, it certainly gives visiting there a different perspective to the tourist jeeps. It’s long been a place I want to visit, maybe I will follow in your wheel treads when I do reach the salar de uyuni!